Just a really quick update for today — but I am committed to keeping this place up and running, so that has to count for something, right? 
Not much time for hobbying lately, but I did take a moment to tweak some of my recent conversions, adding detail to them and cleaning up some of the conversion work.
First up on the chopping block were this beautiful pair: The WIP Master of Executions and Gladiatorial Champion from one of my previous posts:
Now the look for the models was already mostly there, so it was all a matter of adding some well-considered detail to them.
On the Master of Executions, one area that obviously needed work was his right hand: That ring is normally attached to the back of a juggernaut of Khorne, suggesting the way the mounted World Eaters Lord gets to somehow steer and control the daemonic beast (or at least has something to hang on to for dear life, as the mountain of daemonic metal and spite keeps barrelling towards its next prey). In this particular case, I wanted to use it as the base for a little trophy collection that the Master of Executions is carrying around with him, fittingly enough, so I chose a few skulls and carefully attached them to the ring bit:
This would have been easy enough to overdo, so I had to stop myself before going over the edge. But I think the – mostly – finished look works pretty well.
The other part that needed some attention was the model’s backside, as it seemed quite barren. Fortunately enough, the Jugger Lord comes with some pretty cool stock bitz that worked really well when I simply stuck to the model’s belt:
I think it’s an excellent match for this character to have his armour festooned in skulls — even moreso than your average World Eater, that is…
I am mostly prepared to call this conversion finished at this point. What do you think?
When it came to the gladiatorial “Arena Champion” archetype, the model had mostly only been tacked together so far, so the first order of the day was to carefully glue together the different parts that made up the arms into one sub-assembly for each arm. While I was doing that, however, I also came up with a cool little detail to tie the arms and the body together even more:
You see, there’s quite a bit of chainmal draped over the Mk. VI Preator’s breastplate, so I thought it would be a cool idea to replicate that effect on the arms: This also had the added benefit of covering up some slightly dodgy areas where the shoulder pads met the arms. So I carefully shaved some chainmal pieces off a couple of AoS Blood Warrior bitz and glued them to the arms:
Oh, and I also got rid of that little, aquila embossed on the gun holster — for obvious reasons
So here’s what the model looks like right now:
I rather like the look of this model as well, but it’ll need a bit more work: As you can see in the pictures above, the entire back of the model is very plain — a consequence of the stock model actually wearing a massive cape that normally covers up all of those unadorned armour pieces. I also want to continue the chain motif a bit by adding chains to the model’s wrists and weapons. But once again, I think the look is already there.
And finally, I couldn’t help myself and add yet another round of detail to that poor Terminator Lord I have been tweaking for ages…
You see, after my last round of changes to the model, I posted this version:
But then fellow hobbyist Knight-Pilgrim pointed out a problem: It looks a bit weird how his right clawed gauntlet is just so flat on the front: That little “ledge” you see on the left fist doesn’t exist here, so the fingers just kinda start out of nowhere, right? Now I was a bit miffed at never having realised this. And once you have seen that, you cannot really unsee it, so I knew I had to fix it.
After much hemming and hawing, I came up with a solution: I cut off the front from one of those “claw shields” wielded by the AoS Blood Warriors. It took some doing to find the right bit, but the gauntlet now actually looks way more like a gauntlet, if you ask me:
HOWEVER, once that was done, it became clear I would basically have to tweak the other gauntlet as well 
And this actually took some doing, because none of those “shield gauntlets” really look quite the same, and many of them wouldn’t fit the Terminator’s fist. But I persevered, and here’s what the model looks like now:
Granted, the left gauntlet now looks slightly different from the right one, but since both gauntlets also feature different details on their backs, I don’t think it’s much of an issue. I’m actually happy to have gone back and fixed this.
That being said, I honestly don’t think I can make any more tweaks on this guy: I keep knocking off bitz and pieces whenever I go back in to change something — I have been tweaking and re-tweaking the poor fellow for many years at this point, if you can believe it, and it has been quite a journey for him…
Talk about the Ship of Theseus, eh?
So anyway, that basically wraps up this short update. Here’s our three candidates for today, all together in one picture:
It goes without saying that I would love to hear any thoughts and suggestions you might have. And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!